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Monday, January 31, 2011

12:32 AM Watched for while BBC Arabic News then turned in to Russia Today Arabia , I have not watched Russia Today Arabic nor CNN as I should. I have always relied on Al Jazeera because it seemed more updated before the closure of its office in Cairo. I think Al Jazeera used RNN crew as a source for its news if I am not mistaken.
12:35 AM The latest numbers we have got , our death toll increased to more than 100 and our injured increased to more than 2000 across the country. People are falling down in Al Tahrir square on a daily basis on the hands of the police. Ironically it people were not killed at the Al Tahrir square or rather Ismail square during the British.
12:43 AM More people are speaking about more members of police of force among the looters and thugs busted. Watching CNBC Arabia , Mustafa Bakery’s brother is speaking , he is among the protesters. He did not attack ElBaradei nor the States amazingly. The men of my neighborhood caught a thief in a street near to my house who turned to be a fugitive , they brought to him to the army. The new army emergency numbers are always busy by the way.
12:47 AM CNBC claims that 19 private jets have departed in Egypt with families of Egyptian and Arab businessmen. I think I posted this news before
12:52 AM Listening to Wael Abbas in BBC Arabic , at last some blogger is speaking on air.
12:59 AM More people are attacking ElBaradei on air from the mainstream media morons who will not have a place in our New Egypt insh Allah that we will have whether sooner or later. Of course this attack is resulted from the fact that all international media is highlighting the statements of ElBaradei in the Al Tahrir square or his announcement that he was delegated by the opposition parties.
I do not have to listen to the rants of Khaled Salah who is working for Ashraf Al Sherif , the son of Safwat Sherif !! I do not have to listen to Siyad Badawy after what he has done in Dostor News. I do not want to see the baby face of Sherif Amar again on TV or listen to his voice.
I support Dr. ElBaradei again and I respect him , at least he participated in The Friday Wrath unlike Siyad El-Badawy , where was Siyad El-Badawy last Friday ?

12:21 AM Fires at the supreme council of press in Cairo. New protester to be killed by the snipers of the MOI in Cairo. The State Security HQ and NDP HQ in Baltim , Kafr El-Sheikh were torched.

12:13 AM armed people attacked the house of general Ismail El-Shaer , the head of Cairo security directorate.Protesters are still at Tahrir square. Sherihan is on Al Jazeera and I am going to cry , I love that lady so much , she said that if it were not from cancer , she would go and donate with her blood.

11:41 AM terrible clashes in Ismailia. The locals in Sinai kidnapped officers and took them as hostages.

11:44 AM graffiti all over Egypt calling Mubarak names even on the Egyptian army tanks. There is an urgent meeting in the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs to discuss the matter.

11:58 AM : Many injured are in Tawfikia needed to be transferred to hospitals.

12:01 PM : Live ammunition were used last night.

12:16 PM I talked to a friend in 6th of October city , she is living near the police station there, she told me that she heard in her house the sound of automatic guns , live ammunition.Carefour Maadi is allegedly on fire. I think we are getting close from a hunger revolution.

12: 20 PM A friend in Shahab street, Mohendessin told us that that the shops there were looted yesterday. The duty free shops branch at Gamaat Al Doul was looted too.

Friday, January 28, 2011

(Update : I think you probably knew about what is happening on Friday 28th January 2011 in my country before I did thanks to the communication blackout , I feel so isolated )

12 : 42 AM Having difficulties to go online , now I can’t go online. Called my cousin whose ISP is different than mine “I am on TE Data , he is Link Dot Net” , he told me that he is facing difficulties as well. It starts with slow connection then now there is connection at all.

12:44 Can’t connect on 3G network on my mobile phone either “Mobinil”, I am worried and I feel that I am disconnected from the outside world. It seems that regime has launched its own operation “Communication blackout” from now. Earlier there was a breaking news and the news anchorman read some statement from the MOI threatening the protesters , it was like a statement from the 1960s era !

12:49 Tried to call a friend of mine who lives in the other side of Cairo to see the status of internet there but she did not answer because she most probably sleep . I am officially a pain.

12:52 AM No need to worry I know the places of the protests already and the route of the protest in Mohendessin , I was already writing a post about today !! I will return to write that post just in case. It seems that it will be a long night after all or to be correct a long day .

1:15 AM I called my cousin again to check with him , may be something is wrong in my connection but shocked ; no internet nor 3G nor Blackberry service !! His friend called one of the network operators and knew that it is beyond the network ,it came from the government. The government pulled the plug !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1:30 AM I am reading Mickey Mouse Magazine , I like this issue !!

3:30 AM heading to bed

11:47 AM I woke up at last , the mosque besides my house started the prayers by reading the Quran , no Mobile phone service at all. I actually needed that sleep.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

In 1973 Suez city was under a brutal siege thanks to the Israeli IDF yet the city stood up to the invaders and kicked their asses like never before in an amazing way , now in 2011 the Suez city is yet again under a brutal siege thanks to the Mubarak regime. There are food and medicine shortage in the city thanks to the security siege. There has not been a full list yet or a real count for the victims fallen among the civilians , officially 4 people have been killed in the past 24 hours and dozens were injured. The death toll in the city is now 7. More protesters are detained and actually what it increases the clashes is that the detainees’ families demand their release in front of the Governorate building.
Here is the newest video I found from the city uploaded from two hours ago.

I can’t open twitter directly nor the Facebook again from TE Data network , other internet users are reporting the same using different ISP.
Blackberry users are reporting as well that the Blackberry Messenger “BBM” is currently blocked in Egypt according to security reasons. Update :

News that twitter and Facebook are back "highly doubtful as I can't get access to them directly.

SMS service is completely down in Egypt , SMS is currently dead in all networks

There is unconfirmed news that BBM is back , I am not sure yet

Strong rumor that ISPs in Egypt got orders that to pull the plug on internet all day long tomorrow insh Allah.

There is a news that there is some kind of labor protest in Helwan governorate , Helwan district has got many factories and labor population that has been suffering from long time.

There is a protest formed in Abassiya.

Last night “26/1” there were clashes in Cairo , protesters again had marches near the ministry of foreign affairs where they clashed with the security forces. The gate of the ministry of foreign affairs was reportedly smashed. One CSF and one protesters were reportedly killed.

There is a lot of anticipation considering tomorrow , there is a rumor that the security forces will close the mosques down town.

Just like any city in Egypt now boiling with anger , the situation in Sallum , Marsa Matrouh has exploded. Protests have started from couple of hours in the border city. The situation is not good as we are not speaking but mutual fire , the security forces are reportedly using live ammunition not even tear gas grenades.
The angry locals have managed to encircled the police station there and set tires on fires in the highways. The people there have set the State security HQ on fire along the police station.
The people of Sallum have been suffering economically since the closure of Sallum land port with Libya.
There is no real development for Sallum just like in Sinai.
I am concerned because the media is ignoring Sallum as a border city and as not to add more oil on the fire currently in Egypt. People will be encouraged more when they see protests all over the country.
As we are near from Libya , I should not forget mentioning what Gaddafi said from having confidence in Mubarak and the Egyptian society’s stability !!
I do not know if we should be ready for his next speech to the Egyptian people our what !!
The story is developing.

First Suez and now Ismailia. We called our relatives in Suez to ask them about what is currently going on and they are already living and working in the suburbs. They did not have clashes there but the situation at Down town city there was horrible last night. The situation there is still explosive. Journalists today were allowed to the city and they are reporting very violent clashes. The mobile phones and landlines are dead down town. Several Police stations were torched , more casualties are reported. The scene there was a like a war zone with dead bodies in the street and the security forces took the bodies to the hospital. The city or rather the governorate is Sidi Bou Zid officially.

The new thing today was that protest in Ismailia where hundreds of citizens protested and encircled some police station.

Now I will live blogging in this post updates from Canal cities using cover it live to be much easier in a real time.

The mainstream media is on fire technically in Egypt.
Popular TV host Mahmoud Saad has resigned from Egyptian national TV daily night talk show Misr Al Nahrda last night for refusing to appear on air and to repeat the lies of the regime and to defend the MOI. Mahmoud Saad has resigned and won the respect of millions of Egyptians unlike Tamer Amin who should know that we will not forget him and the other two stooges in the show.
Mona El-Shazly gave some sort of a speech in the beginning of her show and then in the end of the episode which discussed the situation hinted that this could be her last time on air.

Good news people : Twitter is back online in Egypt , you can access it directly with proxies or web applications at least in TE Data network. Also, the Facebook is back online.
Our wise regime though that by imitating the stupid Ben Ali regime and imposing online censorship they will control the people’s anger and will make the people stop protesting !!
Well, online censorship did not stop the Tunisians who really suffered for years from this stupid censorship and despite the important role the Facebook played in mobilizing or rather organizing the Day of Anger #Jan25 yet who said that people only revolt thanks to social networks !!? As far as I know there was no social network in 1919 or in 1977 !!??
Now bad news the connections are so slow in a stupid way , I do not understand what is going on actually.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Suez city is like a war zone currently , the updates coming from the city currently describing very violent clashes between the locals and the police forces. The people of Suez are extremely angry for the murder of three locals “Mustafa Reda , Soliman Saber and Gharib Abdel Aziz Abdel Latif” yesterday during the #Jan25 Anger Day protest. This video below is allegedly for the first fallen victim in the #Jan 25 Anger Day.

I do not know if Dr. ElBaradei will read this message or not but please Dr. ElBaradei return to Cairo now not even ASAP but now, leave whatever you are doing in Austria and return because the people need you besides them. Speaking in CNN or having an interview in Der Spiegel will not help the protesters or give the regime a strong message but returning back to is the ultimate message, if the regime does not let you in from Cairo airport then this is the ultimate message.
Egyptians have never been like this before , they need to be encouraged more and more , use the fact that you are international recognized personality , use the fact that you have got the Nile Sash , you come after the President according to protocol.
If you join Egyptian people in their protests and strikes now , the regime will think thousand times before harming you.
The people in the street want a peaceful change but the police is not giving any chance.

We did not expect that January 25 anger day would be like that in any possible way , neither did the Egyptians nor the world that was not only amazed but is on its nerves currently anticipating what is going to happen in the land of the pharaohs.
The first expected reaction was economically the Egyptian pound has fallen to its lowest levels since 6 years against the U.S dollar after the protest. The Egyptian stock exchange has hit rock bottom. Now I expect the Economy and investment ministers will go and tell us that these protests are nasty foreign plot to destroy the Egyptian economy which is fine and solid … blah blah blah. The stock exchange experts are demanding the government to close the stock exchange to avoid any losses. Already last week when the Suicide wave took the Egyptian street , many foreign investors have pulled their money from the market. “We are speaking about billions of dollars”
The second expected reaction was these rumors that do not want to stop any sooner or even later. As I hinted yesterday there was that rumor that Suzanne Mubarak , her sons and their families have reached London and were seen by Egyptians working at Heathrow airport. Later that night we had this rumor that Egyptian businessmen tycoon Ahmed Ezz has fled the country. Today the Cairo international airport officials have denied these rumors insisting that those high ranking officials have not left the country. They did not name those high ranking official though. It is possible that Gamal Mubarak and Ahmed Ezz have traveled to Switzerland to attend the current world economic forum there.

I remember that I called Mohamed ElBaradei as a new hope in Egypt , well what I have seen by my own eyes and heard by my own ears. If millions were and are at their homes , thousands , real thousands took the streets across the country and it started with Facebook invitation and a revolution in a sister country

New Hope

I live in Mohendessin and the first place I tried to cover was Gamat Al Doul street and Mustafa square, I thought that the protest would start at 2 PM but I was wrong when I went all what I found CSF vehicles moving around. It turned out that the protest started earlier and turned a march that moved in to Al-Batal Ahmed Abdel Aziz street then in to Tahrir street in order to reach Cairo and Tahrir Square , Down Town.
A friend of the family living at Gamat Al Doul street described a scene she has not seen in her entire life in that upscale neighborhood , thousands "estimation of 10,000 protesters" flooding like an angry river chanting angry anti-Mubarak regime chants.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Here today is the 25th of January , the Police national day , after couple of hours supposedly insh Allah there will be huge protests across the country demanding specific political and social demands.
The news talk shows last night could not ignore the day and it showed nothing except that the regime is freaked out
The protests have not started but I will say that the day is successful “Insh Allah” because it showed how much the regime is scared from the people , the regime freaked out after knowing that thousands accepted the protest invitation online not even offline. Thanks to our Tunisian brothers our regime began to fear us more and more.
That scared regime is actually a weak one that has no confidence in itself , sooner or later it will fail.
Now it is 1:16 AM Cairo local time and there are rumors circulating the internet in a silly way.
More updates to come insh Allah to this post through out the day.
Before I forget please remember the real heroes of the Ismailia Police Force that stood with the people against the British occupation in the canal zone.Update :

Down Town Cairo is locked by heavy presence of police forces and their vehicles

There is a presence in security forces in the major squares.

The first anti-regime protest has allegedly started unexpectedly from populated Dar Salam area , people are chanting " Long live Egypt " ,"freedom and bread is all what Egyptian wants"

There is a news that a pro-regime protest is roaming Alexandria.

There is a protest led by teachers allegedly in Sharkia governorate.

There is a huge security presence in Down town Mansoura.

The Mahalla entrance and exist are being locked down by heavy security forces.

The location of the protest at Cairo university has been changed , the new location will be announced at 1 PM

The American and Canadian embassies have allegedly warned their citizens from engaging in these protests

The security at Mahalla is taking the IDs of journalists.

The CSF closed all ways to the ministry of interior and to Abdeen Palace plus Korba

Ayman Nour is heading a protest at Bab Al-Sharia according to his twitter account.

To follow the updates on twitter : you can simply follow the Hash tag : #Jan25

The police has failed in attacking the protesters at Tahrir and the protest there is getting larger and larger. The protesters have managed to cross the security cordons and seemed to be heading to Kasr Al Nil bridge

Monday, January 24, 2011

As soon as the Ben Ali regime began to fall and their own Wikileaks files began to surface. The Tunisian files are mostly coming from the police stations that were deserted after the fall of the regime for fear of the public anger. The files show a typical police state where citizens spy on each other and live in fear , where citizens can’t practice their religious beliefs as they want to. “A basic human right”

Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei has addressed the Egyptian police on the eve of their national day. Dr.ElBaradei recorded that video message before travelling to Switzerland. He is currently being criticized for not participating directly in the #Jan25 protest despite his total support to the peaceful protests that will be held on that day.
You can watch the video message below after the break

It is 24 hours before January 25th and there is a lot of anticipation online and offline on what is going on that day.
First of all I am not sure whether officially the Muslim brotherhood is going to participate in the protest or not because there is talk that the brotherhood are allowed to participate individually !!?
Second it seems that surprisingly the Wafd party is going to participate in the protest or at least the youth of the Wafd party.
Now there is something I fear , the government is asking the shops to close on January 25 because of the riots that will place , this photo was taken from Heliopolis at some Gym.

The sign speaks

I fear that the government wants the protest turns in to riots to justify the use of violence against the protesters. The NDP promised already to launch a counter protest , a pro-Mubarak protest where it will distribute thousands of pro-Mubarak shirts !!!!!!!!!! I do not have any doubt that the NDP supporters will be rented thugs.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Ok Julian Assange you got a big competition because Al Jazeera has launched its own Wikileaks website and has already its own leaked documents that can for real change the Peace process in the Middle East.
For the whole day Al Jazeera aired an announcement on TV and on online that on 20 PM GMT Al Jazeera will announce a huge rocking announcement regarding some confidential documents. The channel did not say anything till noon when they announced that the documents are about the Palestinian – Israeli negotiations. Honestly it seemed boring as nothing would prepare us for what was revealed.
And at 20 PM GMT Al Jazeera revealed that it has got 1600 confidential documents from the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations including the emails between the officials from both sides. The Guardian has published the Palestine Papers as well in cooperation with the Arabic channel.
Despite it is not actually surprisingly but the PLA has given a lot of unacceptable concessions when it comes to East Jerusalem , Israeli settlements and the refugees besides the Jewish identity of the Israel.
Currently I am watching the special coverage on air in Al Jazeera Arabic channel , Saeb Erekat was now their guest and he was furious , really furious. “I fear on his health”
Abu Mazan is currently in Cairo at some Palace called the Al Andulas Palace “currently searching for this palace to know its story” and I think he will not sleep tonight.
You can follow the updates online live on twitter through: #Palestinepapers
Al Jazeera is covering Jerusalem issue tonight.
Ok it is finished and I have got questions :

Who has leaked these documents ?? Has Dahlan hand in this bringing down the temple on everybody ?

Why did Al Jazeera or rather Qatar publish these documents now ?? By the way I believe the journalists of Al Jazeera made a historical fantastic job but we should not forget the administration of channel needs approval from Qatar to publish this stuff in this way.

Minister of interior Habib Al-Adly revealed today that a Palestinian militia is behind the two saint Church bombing in Alexandria. In a very short statement the minister said that it was proved through evidence that “The Palestinian army of Islam” was behind the attack.
In what considered the first public appearance for the minister of interior since the attack , Al-Adly stated that the group that was linked to Al-Qaeda hid behind members they recruited in Egypt !!
The statement did not explain how the militia managed to penetrate the Egyptian society despite all the security measures between the Gaza-Egypt borders and in Sinai n general. The statement also did not explain who were those members the militia managed to recruit in Egypt. Neither militia nor the Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Update : The group has denied any responsibility to the attack according to its spokesperson in Gaza despite praising the operations !!!!!!!!!!!

The news says that on that day the Cairo international airport administration announced an emergency status to recheck 59 gold and foreign currencies parcels because some parcels were torn before their shipment to Holland. The airport summoned some representative from the bank that issued that shipment to recheck it. That shipment was heading to Amsterdam through some Dutch airlines “most probably KLM”

The news has created a lot of reaction online as people began to connect it and what happened to the gold reserve in Tunisia. The big number of parcels gives the impression that someone is packing his bags and leaving as soon as possible and that this gold is from our reserve not privately owned gold.

According to my knowledge Egyptian banks do not keep gold , it is only the central bank of Egypt. Banks deposit their gold in the CBE and something is not right in this news at least now. Of course we should not forget that foreign investors were pulling their investments as fast as they could in the past week

Saturday, January 22, 2011

The Tunisian revolution can teach us a lot of things if we want to learn something from other people’s experience :

Revolution happens unexpectedly even in the most police state.

Sometimes revolutions do not need leaders but this a double edged weapon.

People revolutions need a real support from the army especially if they are met by huge police resistance.

Education plays a huge role more than you can imagine and this is why our regime prefers us ignorant.

Uprisings and revolutions happen in areas outside the capital and sooner they will be spreading throughout the country.

What happened in Tunisia can’t be copied in Egypt or any other country in the same way because each country has its own conditions and circumstances.

Arrogance and isolation bring dictatorship regimes down regardless of how strong they seem .

The middle class has a very important role to make the revolution succeed just like the working class , of course Tunisia has got a very big middle class. The whole society should be united to make a real successful revolution , what made the Iranian uprising fall in Iran was that it was a middle class revolution only.

The national revolution does not need a foreign support to succeed.

The unions and syndication play a very important role in these events.

The mainstream media is not that important anymore , in fact it has never been important . In 1919 people revolted against British occupation when there was no access to radio , even the number of those who read newspapers then was small still the revolution was successful. Till January 14 , 2011 all mainstream media in Tunisia was following Ben Ali and his regime , nothing was wrong in the country except a few unrest caused by terrorists.

The social media only played a role in spreading the news outside the country but it did not play that huge role in the revolution in the real world considering the fact the online censorship Ben Ali imposed. Yes in Egypt things are different as the 6 April strike and the Khaled Said movement are good examples but people do not just organize themselves online.

The dictatorship and corruption are not over by the escape of the dictator president and his family alone , it is a long process to clean the country

Revolutions do not mean violence despite this related to the level of education and civility of the people , unlike what our official media claims in Tunisia those who spread violence in the country were the thugs of Ben Ali. Destroying the Ben Ali and his extended family’s properties is a normal action.

This is what I learned from the Tunisian revolution
We should learn from each other to avoid repeating the mistakes.

The January 25th protest is getting serious attention more and more. More Facebook pages and groups are calling for the #25 Jan and more political groups are going to participate in the huge event "They are about 17 groups".Many are praying that it be the start of a new thing in Egypt. Now if you are interested in following the protest on twitter to know its updates then follow this hash tag (#Jan25)

I am going with my daddy #Jan 25 "Khaled Said group"

Surprisingly “Salafist movement for reform” aka “HAFS” has announced that it will participate in the event , this is the first time a Salafist movement participates in something like this considering the Salafist believes and teachings. I have my fear and my suspicion which I will keep it to myself. I know that this particular movement has its political believes still ....
The Mahalla workers will participate too , you may remember how they made their own day on the 6th April from couple of years ago.

Friday, January 21, 2011

There are considerable number of Egyptian editor in chiefs and journalists in Egypt who should apologize immediately to the Tunisian people. For the past 23 years we had those paid PR reports about the achievements of Ben Ali in Tunisia , for the past 23 years all the Egyptian newspapers except very few like original Dostor praised Ben Ali and his wife Laila.
Some will argue and say that the newspapers could not refuse the big checks paid by the Tunisian embassy and I will say no they can especially the weekly private owned newspapers.
There are also those journalists like Hamdi Razek who used to praise Ben Ali directly and explicitly just because he fought all signs of religion in the country , these journalists should apologize immediately to the Tunisian people. “Actually those journalists have to apologize to the Egyptian people one day”
There is no doubt that the mainstream media in Egypt is a very critical position because it used to praise Ben Ali day and night aside from the fear that the Egyptians will be encouraged by the Tunisian brothers and imitate them.
Among the journalists who should apologize immediately to the Tunisian people Lebanese journalist and TV hostess Maria Malaouf who used to praise the Queen of Carthage Laila Ben Ali .
These Egyptian and Arab journalists do not have any excuse in kissing the ass of Ben Ali . P.S I know that after Saddam and Ben Ali some Arab journalists have lost important source of income.

Mahmoud Saad had congratulated the Tunisian people on air last Saturday on air in Misr Al-Nahdra TV show suddenly on behalf of him and his friends only not on behalf of the Egyptian people.
Now Kamal and other trolls are attacking Saad saying that he does not represent the Egyptian people and should not use the national TV to express his political views… to the end of their cheap talk that only reflects their fear from the Tunis syndrome. Now from my blog here I say that Kamal and his troll brothers do not represent except the regime which does not represent the people of Egypt.
Now I thank Mahmoud Saad for what he had said last Saturday on behalf of millions of Egyptians even though he assured that he was speaking on behalf of himself and his friend
Yes Mahmoud Saad is being used currently as a vent , yes he takes millions of pounds but at least he is a respectable man.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Former Tunisian first lady Laila Ben Ali is said to leave or rather escape the country taking with her about 1.5 tons of gold from the Tunisian central bank. The Tunisian officials denied this on the Tunisian TV and considered it as a rumor. The Tunisian officials claimed that Tunisia did not own 1.5 tons of gold in the first place !!
Well our dear Tunisian activists made a quick search in the World gold council website and found out that in December 2010 Tunisia got or used to have 6.8 tons. Now if the Tunisian officials lie and say Tunisia has not got gold reserve then logically they are lying about Laila’s theft. Well now Tunisians have got 4.3 tons gold reserve thank God.
Now this made me ask : how much gold reserve has Egypt got ??

Aside from the foreigners that were arrested in the past couple of days in Tunisia by the Tunisian army from Sweden and Germany who turned to be tourist hunters,there are very alarming rumors online that there are currently foreign mercenaries responsible for the unrests and also the murders that took place in the past weeks.

I heard that the snipers that used to kill the protesters in Tunisian towns in the past couple of weeks are not from Tunisia but rather Serbian mercenaries brought by Ben Ali.

There is no smoke without fire and the Ben Ali’s regime will not go without a fight. Already till yesterday there had been clashes between the Tunisian army and the remains of the Ben Ali’s presidential guard.

I follow Gawker and from couple of weeks ago they published that very disturbing video of a Russian lady swinging a baby like some stuffed doll and it created a huge reaction and also skepticism as the baby did not look normal and many people could not believe themselves. I searched for the videos in YouTube using the name of that so-called baby Yoga trainer Lena Fokina , I found other videos and immediately I reported them to the YouTube. Thankfully YouTube has removed the clips as they were disgusting. “My mom could not complete the first video”

Fokina holding two babies upside down "Dad Wagon"

Gawker followed the matter and published more videos including a video on YouTube that made me so uncomfortable and it was not because of that torture of the sweet babies’ little pinky arms nor to that NSFW hippy environment that does not go along with 2011 but with the fact there was this very Egyptian oriental music in the background and photos of beaches similar to our beaches in the red sea. The Tabla Baldi in the background music can’t be anything except Egyptian then the photos of these beaches made me wonder. All what we know then that there are real crazy people in the world who think it is ok to swing a baby like a towel and consider it as Yoga !! It was not a silly internet hoax.
Thanks to the Tunisian revolution I forgot those horrible videos but today Gawker shocked me when I found out that Ms. Lena Fokina is a Yoga trainer based in Dahab , South Sinai.. yes our Dahab , Egyptian Dahab !!!!!!!!!!!!

I like to follow local news portals from different governorates in Egypt like Alexandria and Port Said and when it comes to Alex I follow the APN which according to MSM and Social media has become one of the main sources of news from our former second capital.

This photo was mostly taken at Labib’s office so this means he did not notice that the Egyptian flag was upside down !! It also means that the photographer and all those who were in that office that day did not notice for one second that the flag is upside down !! I do not know if anyone of the admins of the governorate official website noticed the flag or not but it seems no one paid attention as it is being used over and over there !!
So much respect to our highest national symbol !!? So much respect indeed !!?
The flag upside down means distress ; things are not stable and the army is needed !!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

25th of January is the national day of Police Egypt where we remember how our police force in Ismailia stood besides the people and the resistance against the British occupation in a very rare patriotic incident in 1952.
Now in 2011 there is a big event organized by “We are all Khaled Said” group and supported by other opposition political parties and groups on that day and there are huge hopes that this event will change Egypt forever especially after what happened in Tunisia.
The group is calling the people to go to the street in order to achieve certain demands :

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Egyptian hero Ahmed Al-Hawn was transferred to a hospital in Aswan after having a heart attack and he is currently in ICU. Al-Hawn was being honored in the National Day of Aswan. Insh Allah he will be fine , I hope that Dr. Magdy Yaccoub sees him there.
Now I forgot to publish this very cheerful news last 1st January 2011 as we have been busy in the disaster of Alexandria , I wanted to started the year with it but fate had other plans.

Ahmed El-Hawn aka Gomaa El-Shawn signed the NAC Demands statement.He also stated that any sane person will do same and sign the NAC demands statement and that he has never voted in any election because he does not trust its integrity.
This is the biggest slap to the regime that disrespected him and the NDP MP Abdel Salam Mahgoub who should have not enrolled in politics in this way after his fine history in the GIS in the first place. “Ahmed Ezz who used to wear pampers when Mahgoub was risking his life in 1960s in the GIS calls him now Abdel Salam !!”
Do not underestimate the power of that statement or the NAC or ElBaradei , let’s knock all the possible doors as much as we can and yes sign the NAC demands statement.
Have a speed recovery El-Hawn , we need you big man more than those imposters of the policies committee.I sent him a SMS today wishing a speedy recovery.
Please spread this news because the MSM has ignored it completely

It seems that Mohamed Bou Azizi May Allah bless his soul has set a trend in Egypt :

A housewife in Alexandria set herself on fire yesterday at the same time we were busy with Abdel Manam Hamda in Cairo , I do no know what happened to her.

Today another citizen tired to set himself on fire in front of the parliament in Cairo again in less than 48 hours after Hamda. 50 years old Mohamed Farouk , a divorced lawyer set himself on fire but the parliament guards managed to saved him quickly and transfer him to the Monira hospital. The MOH has not published any statement about his condition , I think it is worse than Hamda’s then !! The only thing we know about him according to Mainstream media is that he was objecting his daughter’s behavior !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another citizen tried to set himself on fire in Alexandria and this time it is unemployed 25 years old Ahmed Hasham El-Siyad who is suffering from 3rd degree burns and is currently between life and death !!!

The security of the parliament has stopped another citizen from setting himself on fire from couple of hours ago and currently there is a fire engine and ambulance in front of the parliament just in case !! No one has tried yet the Oroba palace despite it is the real decision making center in the country !!

There is no perfect time to discuss the Wikileaks cables about Tunisia except now in Egyptian Chronicles , there is no perfect to discuss the dirty laundry of the Ben Ali’s regime except now to remind the world how the Tunisians suffer despite that glossy travel poster scene we always think of when we hear the world “Tunisia”.
First of all I use the Tag in Wikileaks not only the origin to get the cables I want, the Tag feature will help you to see what other embassies and countries say about the country I am following. Second of all GOT is the government of Tunisia. Third there are no much cables from the U.S embassy in Tunis , may be the Wikileaks has not released yet more cables , may be we should not compare with a country like Egypt whose main western alley is States with Tunisia whose main western alley is France. “I bet the French cables got very real interesting details.There are in total 11 cables related to Tunisia with direct and indirect mentions in the available released batch. I will cover this time 5 cables and insh Allah in the next post I will cover the rest.
The first direct mention of Tunisia in the cables was in a secret one that sent on 30th March 2006 from the U.S embassy in Paris to Washington D.C and the U.S embassies in Tunis, Algiers and Rabat. This cable was mainly about French terrorism investigation judge Jean Francois Ricard and his promotion and transfer to the ministry of defense. The mentions of Tunisia comes in the last paragraph in the cable about the intelligence sharing relations between France and the Maghreb countries that Ricard spoke about with the U.S embassy staff. Ricard said that the int’l sharing was strained because the Tunisian government did not like that France had become then little outspoken about human rights in the country. The embassy staff made a comment that the France was still outspoken than the States when it comes to human rights issue in Tunisia.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Even the Tunisians themselves have not made songs yet about their great historical victory , they do not have time for songs now despite all their sincere beautiful feelings now , it is time of action but what can you say about Mr. Tamer Hosni who did not waste anytime in making a lame song about Tunisia and its martyrs to be under the spotlights as usual !!

The denial of denial is confirmation , something we have learnt in Arabic grammar and this is what the Mubarak regime is doing now day and night to prove to us that what happened in Tunisia can’t happen in Egypt despite all the bets and expectations , despite all the tensions and despite all the fiascos on all levels

I do not pay attention for commercials but some commercials are too provoking to the level that you can’t ignore like for instance Bawadi Halwa where its new ad campaign makes fun from prisoners as they are not human beings . It is even more worse than the Adel Emam Vodafone ad which had a good message but wrong star , if they had hired Yahia El-Fakherany , it would have been better !!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

First of all Tunisia in Arabic is Tunis , I know that I am not doing a good job here because actually I am stuck in to the TV between Al Jazeera , France 24 and surprisingly after very long time Al Arabiya !!Second of all there are the latest updates in Tunis regarding former regime men :

Imad Al-Tarbelsi

Not less than 50 bodyguards of Ben Ali’s bodyguards have been arrested after one hell of fight between them and the Tunisian army at the borders between Tunisia and Libya.

We considered the speech of Gaddafi as a sign of fear and it turned to be so because it turns out that there are some unrests in his country too.
There are unconfirmed news of small protests in several areas for the second day in row yet there are confirmed news that the Libyan citizens attacked some subsidized housing project and took over about 800 units in Benghazi with out the interfere of the security forces. According to news source Gaddafi encouraged the Libyans to do so as he admits that Libyans have been suffering from housing costs despite they were promised to be given affordable houses years ago!! “Do not ask why he has not solved this problem yet because he is not a president and it is these public committees problem !!” It seems that Gaddafi thinks that by this way he will control the Libyan people’s anger , he thinks that he understands the people’s anger but he is actually just like Ben Ali , does not understand anything. The Libyan citizens have paid for these houses as far as I understood and they have received nothing up till now.
According to couple of video clips posted on YouTube “Thanks to Dima Khatib” there were protests in Al Bayda , the 3rd largest cities in Libya because of the housing problem “there is a big Egyptian community there as it is close to the borders” You can watch the video clips below

Gaddafi addressed the Tunisian people defending Ben Ali and demanding him to return back yesterday in a Televised speech.
The king of Africa and revolutions felt so sorry for Tunisia and wondered why the Tunisians do not adopt the public committee system he invented instead of forcing their president out in this way!! Those Tunisians should have waited what would happen after those 3 years

Saturday, January 15, 2011

This post is about the myth and reality regarding the Jasmine revolution : Reality : It started when a policewoman slapped Mohamed Bou Azizi, the university graduate who could not find a job in Sidi Bou Zid governorate except as a vegetable sellers .Feeling so hurt in his dignity , Bou Azizi decided to kill himself publicly ,he torched himself to start an intifada of unemployed in Sidi Bou Zid , the Southern agricultural governorate that seemed to be forgotten by the Ben Ali regime. Bou Aziz failed in his suicide attempt but managed to push the unemployed across the governorate to protest his death. Facing something unexpected the police treated with the matter violently because people began to b killed by the Tunisian police’s fire. Despite enjoyed a stable economy for a while Tunisians began to suffer from the corruption of dictatorship , only the ruling class and the regime men enjoyed the fruits of the Tunisian economy while they left the poor class to suffer and the Middle class to struggle for its survival. The Sidi Bou Zid’s protests sooner moved to other governorates with high unemployment rates and the police also cracked them violently , many more citizens are killed. The climax of events was in Kasserine and the massacre that took place there where the protests erupted through out the country objecting what happened on that night. It was unlike anything happened in Tunisia since the independence .This is the Tunisia’s Jasmine revolution in a nutshell Check the Tunisian posts in Egyptian Chronicles’ Maghreb section.Now to the myths

Ok here are the latest updates from Tunisia and the world after the political earthquake that took place in Tunis yesterday , it is just crazy , there is an update every moment. ‘A vegetable seller brings down a dictator’ , ‘ The slap that brought down a whole regime” in reference to the slap of the municipal employee to Mohamed Bou Azizi that led to his suicide and “Too late to understand the people” in reference to the famous last words Ben Ali said in his last speech; these were the main headlines in the newspapers today.
In another victory to the Tunisian people well , Mohamed Ghannouchi is no longer the acting president as Fouad Mebazaa has become the acting president as the constitution states , it is a blow to the remains of Ben Ali’s regime that are still trying to stand against the storm taking place there. Mebazaa promised an early elections and a national unity cabinet from all political parties headed by Ghannouchi. There are negotiations according to our knowledge through out the world with Tunisian political parties and figures. Tunisian opposition figures from liberals,Islamists and communists are packing their bags to return back to Tunis as soon as the airports open its door yet.